Man I wish this poster wasn't so dang cool, then maybe I wouldn't have watched this movie in the first place.
Remember the fake movie trailers that play at the beginning of Planet Terror? This feels almost exactly like a high budget version with the exact same amount of craziness.
The opening for this movie is one of the most bizarre I've seen in a long time, and overall has the feeling of a video game cutscene you wish you could skip. All of the acting is terrible, and all of the sets look extremely amateur. It's extremely baffling to see something this shitty looking from James Wan, and the opening in no way does a good job of setting the tower for the rest of this movie.
As soon as that opening scene from an early 2000s resident evil game wraps up, we get into this movie by immediately establishing what an abusive asshole the main characters partner is. If that opening got to laugh out of you, this second intro will pretty much immediately bum you out. Another issue I have with this opening is as soon as any of the characters start exploring the house, if you comes painfully obvious that this movie was filmed on a set. Even the exterior shots of the house fell to establish its in any sort of neighborhood whatsoever, and this whole movie just screams filmed on a set.
The main issue with this movie is the combating tones. The script is packed full of very serious subjects like repeating miscarriages and abuse, but is it acted and directed with the kind of strangeness that would only be at home in a cheesey B movie. Everything in this world feels so fake it's hard to make the more serious story elements work alongside the ridiculous scenes of over / barely acted characters. It's easy enough to purposefully ignore a movie flaws, but this movie has so many of them it's impossible to ignore.
I could easily bust out a couple more paragraphs about this movie's flaws, but there are a few things about this move I can't help but enjoy. Part of the reason this setting never feels real is because it feels like it was designed specifically for a horror movie. It's one hell of a lazily written script, but every little aspect of this movie is perfectly designed for spooks. The entire house being a set also allows them to pull off some great shots of her running through the house, and it's perfectly packed with nooks and crannies for things to hid in.
In summary I have one question for James Wan. Who is the target audience for this movie? In a lot of ways this feels like peachy 13 teenage horror movie, but the subject matter is probably blood darker than most teenagers woukd jive with. That being said, the whole movie almost feels too childish and ridiculous for adults.
If you want to see a bunch of random spooks, you'll love this movie. If you're looking for a interesting plot with any good characters whatsoever, maybe watch something else.
I heard good things about squid game...
6/10
Comments